The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-06-23


fore the useful might suggest that the
needs of his moral, social, intellectual and
spiritual natures must be gratified before
his physical necessities; that our system of
education, though not built upon Science,
Is yet built according TO science upon I;
strong, universal and Unsuitable craving
of human nature. Mr.. Spencer loves to
follow nature, when she takes the road
that he points out. If it be true that our
savage ancestors forgot the dinner pot and
felt not the winters cold while listening
to the tender poem, the heroic story, the
inspiring sermon or the soul stirring chant,
were they not lifted thereby into a purer
and nobler region of thought and emotion?
Shall we, in possession of all the physical
comforts of this wonderful age-shall We,
now that the world is abundantly supplied
with material blessings, close our ears and
hearts to the spiritual cries of nature, to
the longings that led our ancestors farther
and farther away from brute existence
and made civilization possible? Would it
not be better to increase rather than di-
minish our efforts after moral, social and
intellectual culture? The body will take
care of itself The soul and the heart
must be warmed and tenderly nursed.
Mr. Spencer gives tardy and grudging
recognition to literature and the fine arts.
He likes them, but only after his liking
for parsnips and saw-mills Whatever
good is in them he boldly claims for
Science. "Music is bad be-
cause it is unscientific. Even in poetry
the same thing holds Who
ever has not sought for fossils has little
idea of the pOetical associations that sur
round the places where imbedded treas
ureS were found. We not
only find that science is the handmade 20
all forms of art and poetry, but that right
ly regarded, science is itself poetic. x
Science opens up realms of poetry, where
to the unscientific all is blank. *
Sad indeed to see men pass by without a
glance that grand epic written by the fin
ger of God upon the strata of the EARTH
1t is undoubtedly true that all nature is
poetic to poetic mind. No one will deny
that science has poetic aspects and that
scientists may have poetic emotions. But
somehow or other the great poets of the
world refuse to write lyrics, epics or
dramas on triangles, sulphuretted hydro
gen, or the Eustachian tubes, and stick
most obstinately to man and his doings,
TO human passions and emotions. What
is poetic produces poetry. If science is
full of poetry and itself underlies all poet
ry, one would expect most of the world S
great poems to be written by scientists
| and on scientific phases of nature. How
many poems have we by SCIENTISTS How
many great poems relate to science? When
did trlloDte inspire a muse? The an
clients wrote poems on science. but was
not that from lack of science? The mod
ern scientists write no poetry, and the
modern poets write no science. Whatever
great poems we have on nature derive all
their power and beauty not from teaching
nature in its scientific but in its human
| aspects In them nature is personified
and derives reflected beauty from sym
| pathetic association with man. OF all the
| poems on the sea or on brooks or on water
in any form, how many discuss its chemi-
cal compositions? OF all the poems on
mountains or valleys or woods, how many
sing of the eocene, miocene or pliocene
! formations? For some mysterious reason
man will regard himself as the most III
| teresting and important object in creation.
| The world refuses to be more interested
in the tOe-nail of tom-tit than in the
| sparkle of a maiden's eye or the sweet
melody of mothers lullaby. Really, il
takes a bold pleader to claim that science
is the father of poetry and music and ora
tory and the other fine arts
But Mr.. Spencer is not satisfied with his
case. After exhausting the vocabulary OF
of rhetoric in praise of what are generally
| considered ''the Sciences, for fear that
some little glory or credit may be given tC
arts or talents or institutions not scientific
he boldly claims everything as a science
or at least as based upon science. He re
duces to exact scientific principles not only
the harmony of revolving worlds but also
the latest fashion in bonnets or the cur
of dudes moustache. If man has in
tiuence in his community, that man is
scientist He understands the science o.
| inf II
himself, has mastered the Fundamental a
principles of the science of psychology, by
| which alone he is enabled to understand
| human nature and to secure a ma jority o
votes for town constable, We will sooI
have the Science of Sneezing, the Scienc,
| of Lying, and the Science of Scratching
| your Toe.
One would think this enough. But no
Science is the creator and preserver of re
ligion. ''Not science, but the neglect o
science is irreligious. Tru,
science is essentially religious.
The scientist by asserting the eterna
principles of things and the necessity o
conforming to them proves himself in
trinsically religious. Devotion to science
is tacit worship, an homage expressed
in action"
The heart and conscience of man hav
accepted a better definition of religion
than Mr.. Spencer's. pure religion anC
undefled is to visit the fatherless ant
widows in their affiiction.'' ''All thing
whatsoever ye would that men should d.
unto you, even SO do ye also unto them.
Take no thought for your life, what y
shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor ye
for your body what ye shall put on. |
not the life more than meat and the bod
than raiment2" But let us grant Mr.
Spencer's theory of religion: that it con
sists in studying nature. How is it NOR
) religious to study the putrefaction of ma
nure, the wriggling of worms or the pet
rified corpses of extinct animals than th
emotions and passions of man, his ideas
his languages, his history, his characte
and his destiny; to study man as mirrowe
in language and literature!
: Well for the world that Mr.. Spencer
Theory of Education has not prevailed
! We rejoice that our ancestors did tur
aside from the plow to weep over the son
of the minstrel We rejoice that Home
and Shakespeare, Luther and Washington
Pitt and Webster were not steam ship caI
tains nor manufacturers of guanO. Lii
would lose much of its sweetness, if n
. constructed by science. Let US keep u
its poetry while we may, and be not am
ious to substitute for the tender glances {
: love spectroscopic analysis of the ey'
: nor a mathematical demonstration for tt
:, blissful kiss of consent.
II - l>n%% J.,